Henchmen Available For Hire In Your Area

I ground on a bit further with the Brethren, doing the washes and basecoat on the leather sections as well as highlighting the black areas on the two remaining groups - the swords and daggers lot as well as the bows and clubs gang:

Tomorrow I'm going to hopefully finish them - I need to highlight the skin, leather, and cloth wraps, and then do the details and touch up the metal areas. Oh, and base. I think I need a new pot of XV-88 (which I still think of as Snakebite Leather). Ideally I'll be onto the Mutants and Possessed by the weekend.

Walking The Mean Streets Of Mordheim

Today I spent a little time finishing off the first Brethren group. These three are armed with shields and clubs to start with, and the models also have helmets and light armour should that ever become available. I'm particularly pleased with the way the shields came out - transfers from the Chaos Knight kit turned out to be perfect quite honestly.

Because these are all 40K figures originally, the hand that most easily took a shield turned out to be the one that used to have a pistol - so this group are all left-handers!

The purple looks really nice and silken, which is interesting

The simple colour scheme really makes them feel like a cohesive group despite the different clothes

The chap in the middle seems to be developing some kind of stomach-mouth, poor fellow

I'm glad to have finished these figures after over a week of no progress on the Pile of Opportunity. Next up are the Brethren with swords and daggers.

Painting Points:
Today: 3
This Week: 3
2025: 152

Oops

 Well, I haven't done any painting at all for a few days - the most extended break all year so far - but today I decided to get back into it, and so I did.

 

They're not quite finished, but they will be soon. I just need to highlight the gold, touch up the metals, and add some decals to the shields (or some freehand designs, I'm not sure which yet). An easy hour or so's work tomorrow will get this little henchperson group done, and then I can move onto the sword and dagger trio.

I'm quite pleased with the way the horns have turned out; though they do need a bit more work the basic finish is there.

Progress!

Today I focussed on just the two Darksouls in the Cult of the Possessed warband - the two heavily robed chaps with big double-handed swords - and got them done. I also did a little work on the Brethren with shields and clubs, and they're probably about half done. Some more painting tomorrow should see them done too.

 The purple turned out really nicely, and I think I might leave out the idea of white as an accent on the black robes - I think the black and purple scheme is nice all by itself. We'll see - I might go back in and add some white chequers or something later.

Anyway, I'm pleased I got these fellows done and it makes me feel a little better now that I've got some more of the Pile of Opportunity done.

Painting Points:
Today: 2
This Week: 2
2025: 149

The Slowdown Is Official

Despite enjoying the process of painting these cultists, I'm finding it slow going. I think the frenetic pace of December and January has sort of fried my painting desire for a bit, so I'm going to take it slow and steady for a while. In that vein, I did almost all the skin on almost all the warband, so what I'll probably do from tomorrow is focus on a group at a time - the Darksouls, then the shield-equipped Brethren, and so on.

The slower pace should, I hope, mean I at least finish a couple of these minis this week.

Donning The Purple

It may have been an indicator of power and imperial privilege, but in the cursed city of Mordheim it's worn by all sorts - from Ostermarker soldiery to members of the Cult of the Sixfold Path:

 Today I highlighted the purple to completion - the recipe's quite simple: Genestealer Purple, wash with Magos Purple Contrast, highlight with Genestealer Purple and then Kakophoni Purple. After I did that I went in and based a chunk of the wrappings some of them wear on their ankles and wrists (or even around the hafts of some of the weapons) with Steel Legion Drab, based the wood with XV-88, and then started the process of painting the skin with Kislev Flesh. All these areas - wrappings, wood, and flesh - as well as some other sections will get a wash of Agrax Earthshade or similar followed by a couple of highlights. After that I'll go in and do the leather sections, touch up the black areas, and then focus on detailing with golds, creams, white, and the like. I hope to get these figures done at some point in the next few days, but some of them - particularly the Mutants and Possessed - might take a bit longer due to their skin needing some different work.

Return To The Cursed City

Today I painted the names onto the unit champions in the Daughters of Khaine army, and put them into "storage" (a drawer in a cabinet). I really want to put them on display but I just don't have the shelf space for it in my Detolfs!

The army - three Regiments and the Endless Spells. It comes to something in the region of 1,500 points

I'm really pleased with the end result and think that the final overall effect is very striking. The red hair and silver armour ties them all together while the varied snake morphs give the units individuality too. 

Having done that, I turned to my Pile of Opportunity and had a rummage. Quite quickly I settled on painting up the Chaos Cult that I built a while ago for Mordheim. These are made from the 40K Chaos Cultists with a ton of bits from my Warhammer bits boxes - mostly parts from the Free Company / Mordheim Mercenaries sprues with some spare shields and other random parts to turn them into fantasy cultists rather than science fantasy cultists. I want to hint at the cult leaning towards Slaanesh more in their worship so have opted for a black and purple scheme with white detailing on the clothes. To that end I have done all the main metalwork and the base coat and wash for the purple elements:

 I really like these minis and have a bunch of them for my Iron Warriors army as well. The whole warband here consists of:

Magister
2 Possessed
3 Mutants (I only need two but I had three minis, so... options!)
2 Darksouls
3 Cultists with shields and clubs
3 Cultists with swords and daggers
3 Cultists with bows and clubs

I could - and probably should - look to add a couple of Beastmen, but for those I really want some of the Mordheim Beastmen that were released for the Empire In Flames supplement back in the early 2000s. So that'll be something for the future!

They're Done

Well it only took days longer than it should have done, but the Blood Sisters are finished, and with them, 1,500 points of Daughters of Khaine. Still no idea how to fill the last 500 points with the stipulation of "only Melusai" even though that's technically already been broken with the Hag made out of a Melusai, but currently I'm leaning towards either some Khinerai harpy-types or just go big with Morathi-Khaine herself. Anyway that's all for the future. For now, have some Melusai!

The whole unit, with champion Cebilren front and centre in her golden helm

A better look at the caucasian viper morph pattern on their tails

Why yes, it does bother me that the Melusai body taken from the Underworlds set doesn't come with the loincloth and armour piece, how did you know

The polearms are pretty brutal looking, a sort of curved bill designed for slashing and hooking with a bladed butt as well. I imagine in skilled hands quite lethal even in real life

I am very relieved to get these snake ladies done. Tomorrow I'm going to pop the names on the champions' bases, take some army shots, and decide what to work on next.

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 5
2025: 147

What's In A Name

Today I've done no painting. Well, that's not quite true - I've applied some Flesh Wash to the gold on three of the five Blood Sisters, so I have at least picked up a brush. What's more important is that I used some name generators (Realm of Plastic and Fantasy Name Generator) to come up with names for the six Melusai champions of the Blood Stalker and Blood Sister units that comprise the bulk of my army:

Blood Stalkers:

Selesis, Lisseh, Kathari

Blood Sisters:

Vehis, Melubron, Cebilren

Now I can paint their names on and that way all the characters and unit champions will be named! If I felt so inclined I could, I suppose, name the rest of the army too, but.. that sounds like madness, quite honestly. It would easily descend into the slippery slope that saw me name every single member of several Guard armies.

So Close!

 And yet so far. I've done the armour, based the hair, highlighted the leather, sorted the buckles...

  ...and still need to do the gold detailing, highlight the skin and hair, do the rubies, highlight the loincloths, and do all the black sections. Then base. Tomorrow! Surely tomorrow! 

In other hobby news, I've started writing a set of rules for a Secret Project. More on that in due course...

Whatever Happened To All The Scales?

No more scales anymore
No more scales anymore

Apologies to the Stranglers for that introduction! Anyway after spending some time with orange and yellow, I have got to the point where I can see the end of this unit in a day or two. I just need to highlight the leather, metal, loincloth, and do things like the gold, hair, and detailing. Luckily I don't need to worry about eyes on these snake-ladies as they all wear full-face helmets...!

 I like the way their markings have come out; they look quite striking at a distance. I've also decided I'm going to go back to all the unit champions and give them names, so expect a post in a few days with all the names on and maybe an army shot or two.

Individual Scales?!

For some reason, I decided that I would individually highlight the scales on the Melusai where possible. There's a mix across the army of dryrbrushing and individual layering, and with this latest unit I'm using both:

 

I drybrushed the whole tail with Mephiston Red and am now working up the orange-yellow markings with Trollslayer Orange and, possibly, if I can stand it, a little bit of a yellow. I've also done the base coat and wash on the skin, so hopefully I can get this unit done this week. And with them the whole army will be done. Then I can pick something I'll find faster to paint, I hope!

Red Caucasian Viper Morph

Normally red caucasian vipers are actually black, with red side patterning, but for some reason I based this unit of Blood Sisters on one particular morph that I found while looking for red snakes:

 

 And with that in mind, I spent the day blocking out the colours on the snake tails and armour of the unit:

The yellow belly scales is a bit of an extrapolation from the above photo of the actual snake

 I'm not totally convinced by the orange on the sides of the tails, but I'll see how it all looks once I've highlighted it and maybe feathered out the colour with some yellow or brighter oranges. Not sure how long these'll take me - probably several days!

At Last!

Well, it took me days longer than I expected, but the last unit of Blood Stalkers (not Sisters, I got the name of the unit wrong) for the army is done:

Patterned after the red-eye tree snake, these Melusai carry heartseeker bows, magically-infused weapons that unerringly find the hearts of their targets

 

The unit's champion (Krone) is second from left, with a copper wyrmling on her arm, and a golden helm as a badge of rank

Their unnaturally pale skin is tinted red, like the scales on their tails

With the Blood Stalkers finished, I just need to work on the last five Blood Sisters (these are the ones with polearms) and then the whole 1,500 point army is done. I still have no idea what to add to bring it up to 2,000 points - I'm leaning towards getting Morathi, honestly, both as a centrepiece miniature and because it turns the army into a 2,200 point force. Or I could just suck it up and break with the concept of "All Melusai", and throw in some standard Witch Elves, but... that isn't as fun.

 Anyway, tomorrow is Blood Sister day!

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 20
2025: 142

So Nearly There

I did quite a bit more on the Blood Sisters today. I need to highlight the hair, touch up the silver, do all the black elements, and then put the last highlights on the skin... and do the eyes and teeth (curses)! I can get all that done tomorrow without much effort I think, and then I can move onto the Blood Slaughterers, which are the Melusai with polearms.

It's hard to see but the champion's little pet dragon creature is a copper colour (thanks to my partner P)

The closer they get to finished, the more pleased I am with them. I think they'll be a really nice addition to the army once they're finally done - Morathi-Khaine willing, that'll be tomorrow!

Slow And Steady Does It

 In theory, slow and steady wins the race. I'm just a bit bummed out by the drop in pace, I think, because I've had such a productive January. Still, today I finished highlighting the tails of the Blood Sisters (that's the Melusai with bows) so now I can focus on the other bits - namely the armour, leather, and details. I got as far as basecoating the armour plate and helmets with Ironbreaker, and decided I'd had enough for the day. I'm sure once I get past the block I'll be back to a faster pace of production, but for now, here's where I am at the minute:

You can see on the champion (on the left) where I started to block in the hair, and had enough of painting for the day.

Confronting The Scales

I really really like the Melusai models in the Daughters of Khaine range that Games Workshop makes. I think they look really cool; I think the concept - an group of half-snake, half-elf women who are inherently magical and dedicated to the worship of Morathi-Khaine - is awesome, and I love the way they look when they're painted up, which is why I have 1,500 points of them.

But.

Painting them up? For some reason, they're hard. I struggle with their scales. It's partly my fault; I had a daft idea right at the start to paint each unit up with their tails patterened after a different, real-life, red snake. The idea was that each unit is made of sisters from the same clutch of eggs, you see. Unfortunately that turned out to be a) a pain and b) intimidating.

Anyway, I've only got two units of five left to do, so here's where the first block stands today:

Their belly scales need a highlight of a brighter pink, and their red tail scales need some work with a bright red to bring them up to a finished point, then it's on to the armour, leatherwork, and final highlights on the non-snake skin before I do the hair and bases. Hopefully a day's hard work tomorrow will get them done, or mostly done.

They Like Blood, It Seems

Today I finished off the last Endless Spell for the Daughters of Khaine, the Bladewind. Then I looked at my Melusai and had a little think about how I'm going to tackle them, and I'm confident I can actually make progress on them tomorrow.

This is, as you can tell, a very subtle spell that involves conjuring giant magic blades spinning around chopping people into little bits. 

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 15
2025: 137

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!

The Avatar of Khaela Mensha Khaine, molten god of war and murder, the Bloody-Handed One, is not Khorne. But you can see where the entirely correct analysis mistake comes from:

Molten metal, cooled and cracking as it moves, charred from heat and fuelled by devotion, faith, and blood - the Avatar of Khaine's very footsteps char and burn the ground

The Bloody-Handed One's name is not hyperbole!

This is, of course, the result of me getting distracted and sidetracked by the Endless Spells and the Avatar of Khaine rather than working on the Melusai. I was fiddling around with army builders last night and discovered I have just under 1,500 points (1,480) of Daughters of Khaine at the moment, but that it will be quite hard to bring it up to 2,000 and keep within the Melusai theme without being very repetitive. I'd put Morathi in but she's over 700 points and that pushes the army to something like 2,200 which - again - isn't a particularly useful points value. And honestly the Melusai are a pain to paint the way I'm doing them. Anyway, to put off highlighting individual scales hundreds of times, I did this today as well:

The Iron Heart of Khaine, the result of prayers from priestess of Khaine

Blood oozes from it as it hovers above the battlefield

Tomorrow I'm planning to finish the last Endless Spell, the Bladewind, which shouldn't take too long, and then I can try again at mustering the willpower to paint Melusai. Who knows, maybe I'll come up with a way to spend 520 points and keep to the theme of "everyone's a snake lady*"!

Painting Points:
Today: 10
This Week: 10
2025: 132

Blood For Morathi!

I have a Daughters of Khaine army that I started a couple of years ago (maybe a bit longer) which is made up almost entirely of Melusai - I think it has one model in it that isn't a snake-lady, but I made the model one anyway to fit the theme. It has two units that weren't quite finished and I've just started having a go at finishing them off:

Blood Sisters who are going to be patterned after Red Eye Tree Snakes

There's also a unit of Blood Slaughterers I need to crack on with. I think I'm probably going to be slow for a little bit in terms of output as January was quite intense and the next few days are going to be a bit busy. But who knows! I'd like to keep up the pace if I can.